Community Rules and Guidelines

Community Rules and Guidelines

Thank you for being part of the PX Connect community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

By joining and using PX Connect, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to the community. The patient experience community was developed for you to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions should be directed to The Beryl Institute via the Contact Us link on this site.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violate these rules.

The Rules

  • By participating in PX Connect, you are opting into a community environment. Other members of The Beryl Institute may be able to see your profile information and send you private messages. Private messages should not include solicitations, calls for participants in studies or advertising for personal gain. Keep in mind that the rules that apply to public posts to PX Connect also apply to private messages: defamatory abusive, profane, threatening, offensive will not be tolerated.

  • We value your privacy. If you would like to view or change your privacy information, click here for information from our FAQ titled How do I control what information is available on my profile.

  • Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there’s no such thing as a stupid question.

  • PX Connect specifically is a place for the community in which the selling or promotion of services is not allowed and in fact creates a negative reaction from the members of the community overall. Therefore, with this commitment to a safe place and reinforcing the Institute’s commitment to the privacy of our members, use of the list found in a PX Connect discussion group and/or any direct contact outside of the PX Connect community based on the cultivating of names/contacts from PX Connect by any member/Solutions Provider to sell, advertise, solicit or market any products, services or events is strictly prohibited. The Beryl Institute reserves the right to remove messages in violation of this standard and ban the individual sources of those solicitations.

    Primary examples of violations include, but are not limited to:
    • Attaching promotional materials and/or branded collateral that include your organization logo and contact information as part of a post.
    • Posting product announcements, promotions or special offers related to your programs or solutions.
    • Sharing links to your programs, products or events that direct users back to your organization’s website (regardless of the type of resource, paid or complimentary). Note: If a member of PX Connect directly requests information, you can privately message that individual.
    • No unsolicited private sales outreach is allowed via PX Connect. A complaint from a member regarding unsolicited outreach will be deemed a violation as noted below.

  • The commitment for all who engage in PX Connect is that the virtual community is NOT to be used as a means to advertise, market or sell. The Institute has specifically created spaces for vendors to introduce these services such as via the PX Marketplace and other advertising and sponsorship opportunities. (If you would like to discuss corporate partnership opportunities with The Beryl Institute, please contact Russell Senger at russell.senger@theberylinstitute.org.) So any items deemed to directly advertise, market or sell would be in direct violation of these standards. All information posted must presented for informational, educational and professional purposes. If a solutions provider can offer expertise, guidance or information on given subjects, we invite you to do so, but this cannot be done with the intention to promote products or services.

    We recognize it may be difficult when members post challenges that a Solutions Provider organization can offer solutions to address, especially when you want to help. We suggest a few potential approaches that would be acceptable under these guidelines:
    • Engage a client to respond to the post and mention their experience with you in addressing a similar issue and/or ask the client to share how they applied one of your resources.
    • Share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions and goals instead of products or services that you provide.
    • Provide suggestions/insight based on your experience with clients from their perspective without directly promoting your services or including marketing collateral. This approach of sharing as a thought leader will further strengthen your position as an objective and valuable contributor to the conversation, while still making people aware of you and indirectly your organization.

  • Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.

  • Postings of job listings and career openings are prohibited in the community. The Beryl Institute offers a Career Center that provides an opportunity for healthcare professionals to see the most recent job listings available for patient experience positions. Job listings are accessible to the general community. Members can list open positions at a discounted rate. Learn more here.

  • Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander and antitrust laws.

  • All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.

  • Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.

  • When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.

  • Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."

In honoring the Code of Conduct and in maintaining the integrity of the discussions on PX Connect, clear consequences for any violation have been established. We recognize there may be a circumstance when someone inadvertently violates the rules, so we have established and will consistently enforce a two-strike policy for any violation. Please note a violation is not associated with an individual, but with your entire organization. For example, if employee A has one violation and employee B commits a second, that is two strikes against ALL individuals associated with that organization and the organization itself.

The results of a violation are as follows:
  • First Violation: A written notice is sent to the individual who violates the guidelines, copying the main contact for the Solution Provider organization.
  • Second Violation: Complete access to the PX Connect Community is suspended for six months for ALL individuals associated with the Solutions Provider organization. This includes both the ability to post AND the ability to review or receive PX Connect postings and digests.

Discussion Group Etiquette

  • Keep in mind the following: Be nice. Assume good intent. Own your own words. Keep it relevant.
  • Include a signature tag on all messages. Include your name, affiliation, location.
  • State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
  • Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information, and put your response before the original posting.
  • When replying to messages, do not reply to the entire list if a reply is directed at a single individual. Replying to the individual may be more appropriate. Replies of a personal nature should not be sent to the group.
  • Only send a message to the entire list when it contains information that everyone can benefit from.
  • Send messages such as “thanks for the information” or “me, too” to individuals--not to the entire list. Do this by using the “Reply to Sender” link to the left of every message.
  • Do not send administrative messages, such as requests for removal from the list. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing e-mail addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings.
  • Warn other list subscribers of lengthy messages either in the subject line or at the beginning of the message body with a line that says, “Long Message.”

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of The Beryl Institute. The Beryl Institute is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by The Beryl Institute or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall The Beryl Institute be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants The Beryl Institute and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

The Beryl Institute does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of The Beryl Institute we will take all appropriate action.

The Beryl Institute reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.